Security Zone; Corpus Christi Ship Channel, Corpus Christi, TX

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Part 165</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket Number USCG-2024-1078]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1625-AA87</RIN> <SUBJECT>Security Zone; Corpus Christi Ship Channel, Corpus Christi, TX</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Coast Guard, DHS. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Temporary final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary moving security zone for navigable waters within a 500-yard radius of certain vessels carrying cargo requiring an elevated level of security in the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. The temporary security zone is needed to protect the vessels, the cargo, and the surrounding waterway from terrorist acts, sabotage, or other subversive acts, accidents, or events of a similar nature. Entry of vessels or persons into this zone is prohibited unless specifically authorized by the Captain of the Port, Sector Corpus Christi or a designated representative. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> For the purposes of enforcement, actual notice will be used from December 20, 2024, until December 26, 2024. This rule is effective without actual notice from December 26, 2024 until December 27, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> To view documents mentioned in this preamble as being available in the docket, go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> type USCG-2024-1078 in the search box and click “Search.” Next, in the Document Type column, select “Supporting & Related Material.” <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> If you have questions about this rule, call or email Lieutenant Tim Cardenas, Sector Corpus Christi Waterways Management Division, U.S. Coast Guard; telephone 361-939-5130, email <E T="03">Timothy.J.Cardenas@uscg.mil</E> . </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Table of Abbreviations</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CFR Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">COTP Captain of the Port, Sector Corpus Christi</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">DHS Department of Homeland Security</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">FR Federal Register</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NPRM Notice of proposed rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">§ Section </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">U.S.C. United States Code</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background Information and Regulatory History</HD> The Coast Guard is issuing this temporary rule under the authority in 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B). This provision authorizes an agency to issue a rule without prior notice and opportunity to comment when the agency for good cause finds that those procedures are “impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.” Under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B), the Coast Guard finds that good cause exists for not publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) with respect to this rule because it is impracticable. The Coast Guard was notified of these vessels' transit and cargo on December 12, 2024. There is insufficient time to publish an NPRM before this operation because the security zone must be established by December 20, 2024, to ensure security of the vessels and the surrounding area and there is insufficient time to provide a reasonable comment period and to consider those comments before issuing the rule. Under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3), the Coast Guard also finds that good cause exists for making this rule effective less than 30 days after publication in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . Delaying the effective date of this rule would be contrary to the public interest because quick action is needed to provide for the security of this vessel and its surroundings while it is in transit. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Legal Authority and Need for Rule</HD> The Coast Guard is issuing this security zone regulation under the authority in 46 U.S.C. 70051 and 70124. The Captain of the Port, Sector Corpus Christi (COTP) has determined that potential hazards are associated with the transit of the Motor Vessel (M/V) ARC INDEPENDENCE. There is a security concern within a 500-yard radius of the vessel when it's loaded and transiting while loaded. This rule is needed to provide for the safety and security of the vessel, its cargo, and the surrounding waterway from terrorist acts, sabotage, or other subversive acts, accidents, or other events of a similar nature while the vessel is transiting within Corpus Christi, TX. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Discussion of the Rule</HD> The Coast Guard is establishing a 500-yard radius, temporary, moving security zone around M/V ARC INDEPENDENCE. Other mariners and vessels will be able to identify the security zone because the M/V ARC INDEPENDENCE's name is clearly marked on its stern, and port and starboard sides. The zone for the vessel will be effective from December 20, 2024, through December 27, 2024, and will be enforced when the vessel is loaded and transiting the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. The security zone will be enforced to protect the vessel, its cargo, and the surrounding waterways from terrorist acts, sabotage, or other subversive acts, accidents, or other events of a similar nature while the vessel is traveling within the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. No vessel or person will be permitted to enter the security zone without obtaining permission from the COTP or a designated representative. As used in this section, “designated representative” means a Coast Guard Patrol Commander, including a Coast Guard coxswain, petty officer, or other officer operating a Coast Guard vessel and a Federal, State, and local officer designated by or assisting the Captain of the Port, USCG Sector Corpus Christi (COTP) in the enforcement of the security zone. Persons or vessels desiring to enter or pass through each zone must request permission from the COTP or a designated representative on VHF-FM channel 16 or by telephone at 361-939-0450. If permission is granted, all persons and vessels must comply with the instructions of the COTP or designated representative. The COTP or a designated representative will inform the public through Broadcast Notices to Mariners and Marine Safety Information Bulletins (MSIBs) as appropriate for the enforcement times and dates for the security zone. <HD SOURCE="HD1">V. Regulatory Analyses</HD> We developed this rule after considering numerous statutes and Executive orders related to rulemaking. Below we summarize our analyses based on a number of these statutes and Executive orders, and we discuss First Amendment rights of protestors. <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Regulatory Planning and Review</HD> Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 direct agencies to assess the costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize net benefits. This rule has not been designated a “significant regulatory action,” under Executive Order 12866, as amended by Executive Order 14094 (Modernizing Regulatory Review). Accordingly, this rule is not subject to review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This regulatory action determination is based on the size, duration, and location of the security zone. This rule will impact a small, designated area of 500-yards around the moving vessel in the Corpus Christi Ship Channel as the vessel transits the channel over a period of approximately four hours or less. Most vessels will be able to move around the security zone and therefore the impediment to the movement of other vessels will be minimal. Moreover, the rule allows other vessels to seek permission to enter the zone. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Impact on Small Entities</HD> The Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, 5 U.S.C. 601-612, as amended, requires Federal agencies to consider the potential impact of regulations on small entities during rulemaking. The term “small entities” comprises small businesses, not-for-profit organizations that are independently owned and operated and are not dominant in their fields, and governmental jurisdictions with populations of less than 50,000. The Coast Guard certifies under 5 U.S.C. 605(b) that this rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. While some owners or operators of vessels intending to transit the temporary security zone may be small entities, for the reasons stated in section V.A above, this rule will not have a significant economic impact on any vessel owner or operator. Under section 213(a) of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-121), we want to assist small entities in understanding this rule. If the rule would affect your small business, organization, or governmental jurisdiction and you have questions concerning its provisions or options for compliance, please contact the person listed in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section. Small businesses may send comments on the actions of Federal employees who enforce, or otherwise determine compliance with, Federal regulations to the Small Business and Agriculture Regulatory Enforcement Ombudsman and the Regional Small Business Regulatory Fairness Boards. The Ombudsman evaluates these actions annually and rates each agency's responsiveness to small business. If you wish to comment on actions by employees of the Coast Guard, call 1-888-REG-FAIR (1-888-734-3247). The Coast Guard will not retaliate against small entities that question or complain about this rule or any policy or action of the Coast Guard. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Collection of Information</HD> This rule will not call for a new collection of information under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520). <HD SOURCE="HD2">D. Federalism and Indian Tribal Governments</HD> A rule has implications for federalism under Executive Order 13132, Federalism, if it has a substantial direct effect on the States ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 16k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━